


Bad Memory

by MrsSarabiHolmes



Series: Bad Memories (Harley Quinn leaves Joker) [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Harley Quinn (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Drama, F/M, Feminist Themes, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsSarabiHolmes/pseuds/MrsSarabiHolmes
Summary: Harley has had enough, but will she truly find the guts to walk out on the Joker? The Joker sure can't believe her and reacts violently, but Harley is stronger than she seems, both in mind and body. This time, it's make it or break it for Harley.
Relationships: Harley Quinn/Joker, Joker (DCU)/Harleen Quinzel, Joker - Relationship
Series: Bad Memories (Harley Quinn leaves Joker) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1779004
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Bad Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Hello y'all!
> 
> I've had this idea for a while and only found the time to write it this week. It's dark and angsty, but feminist in a few ways.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Expect more Harley/Joker fanfics from me, so if it's something you like, consider subscribing to me! Thanks!
> 
> Don't forget to give a kudos or leave a comment; I feed on those, haha!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the very idea of this fanfic and said written fanfic. Otherwise, everything else belongs to DC Comics.

Harley stood at the door, her heavy gaze fixed upon the Joker. He was laughing and laughing … at her. That she let him beat her black and blue, that she said “please,” that she cried.

That she loved him.

A hand of bitterness gripped her heart and twisted it in her chest. If only she’d gotten out way before today. If only she’d never helped him in the first place… Trusted all his lies though her sharp mind whispered warnings. Fell so damn hard in love for the worst criminal there was. Never accepted the nickname Harley Quinn, and never wore that stupid harlequin costume.

Maybe she wouldn’t find herself in a dim warehouse, facing off her pitiful excuse of a boyfriend. Rarely charming, always unreliable.

Joker scoffed, then grinned at her.

“Lil’ Harley’s angry? Nothing’s changing with women!”

Harley inhaled loudly then stomped her foot down onto the cement floor. She pointed an accusing finger at him, her brow furrowed, her cheeks puffed.

“And _you_ are overrated!”

Joker raised his eyebrows and lifted his palms up to her. Then, he burst into laughter.

“Overrated? Everyone knows my name, I can never _be_ overrated, dear.”

“My heart thinks you are, though.”

He just laughed, again. That was all Joker could do really… Laugh. At life, at death, at humour, at darkness, at Batman, at _her_. She didn’t matter to him … not even in the end. He used him and she let him. Her daddy wasn’t right… She wasn’t a clever little girl. She was a broken-hearted, stupid, ashamed grown-up woman.

Joker grinned and stood up, languidly walking to her. He took out a knife from his coat’s inside pocket, and fiddled with it. Every. Step. Of. The. Way. Harley sucked in a breath and grabbed the door handle behind her.

“You know what I think of your heart, _Harlequin_?” he whispered with a venomous drawl.

Many thoughts went through her mind, lightning fast. She expected him to say her heart was dumb, too big, too dependent, too weak, too malleable… Instead, she shook her head and waited for an answer, like his good little pet.

And she hated herself for it.

Every inch of her body boiled with rage. Rage that she still acted like his, rage that she expected something to change in the end, rage that she should have left a long time ago, rage that she became Harley Quinn at all … and rage her heart got smashed to millions of jagged glass pieces that cut deeper into her. Always deeper.

“One, way too expectant. Two, too cumbersome. And three … way too … LOVING!”

Joker slashed at her with his knife, taking her by surprise. Harley gasped and jumped aside, the knife cutting her forearm. She clenched her teeth and protected the bleeding gash.

When she looked up at Joker, his features were so distorted by fury and something like sorrow gleaming in his eyes that she froze for a beat. She recalled their meetings in Arkham, where he’d use eyes full of pain, of sorrow, to get what he wanted… But now, something was different; he wasn’t using it on her, no, he was trying to _conceal_ it.

This realization spurred determination in Harley and she clenched her fists and lifted up her chin. There was no way she was letting him win this time around. The Joker played his card and won too many times. Time for the Harlequin to get rid of him and steal the show!

She felt like steel had wrapped itself around her heart. And she was fine with that.

Harley threw a punch at his face and his head snapped backwards. A distinct crack could be heard as his nose broke under the hit. She waited until he was glaring at her, a hand over his bleeding nose, then spat on him.

“Enough, you little shit! I erased you from my heart!” she shouted at him, nearly destroying the walls with her intensity and long-buried pain. “You’d best stay away from me forever; I don’t love you anymore. You’re _nothing_ to me. Go to Bats and see if I care.”

She huffed then threw a lock of hair away from her face with a brusque, but proud movement of her head. With her smile bunched in a corner of her mouth, Harley walked past a stunned Joker and opened the door.

Light was streaming from outside, warming her face. She could hear birds singing. A new dawn was on the horizon. Harley looked over her shoulder one last time, blood still dripping from her heart onto the floor.

“And you’ll just be a bad memory, Joker.”

Then, Harley stepped outside, her heart as light as it had been before she met that dangerous monster in Arkham.

So, this was her, walking out.

And never coming back.

The joke was on him, after all.


End file.
